Sunday

Given his upbringing, it’s probably not a surprise that Tommy Mauney made a successful career behind the wheel. The surprise, it turns out, is what kind of car he wound up driving.

Growing up, Mauney was surrounded by some of the best dirt track racers in the area. His neighbors included drivers like Preston Humphries and Roe “Red” Davis, and many members of his family also raced on weekends.

Being surrounded by racing and drivers of that quality, it was only natural that Mauney eventually got interested in the sport himself. As a teenager, he managed jobs hand-lettering cars and wound up hanging out in the pit areas of many races.

“They wouldn’t let me help, but you can learn a lot just sitting and watching a lot of times, just studying away,” said Mauney.

It wasn’t until Mauney was 14 or 15 years old that he would find his passion for the sport. Someone in his neighborhood purchased a drag racing car and while hanging around that garage, and Mauney ended up behind the wheel.

That moment would be a defining one, as he knew immediately what he wanted to do.

Winning ways

At 16, he got his driver’s license and his first car, a four-speed 1965 GTO, which he started racing right away at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby. Three years later, still in that GTO, he picked up his first trophy as a drag racer.

In 1980, he decided to build his own car, a Chevrolet. That car became the first of many built by Mauney, as he later went on to open his own business building race cars.

Mauney took that first car to Shadyside to race as part of a team. Soon after selling the car, he joined another team and began racing pro-stock events hosted by the IHRA.

When that team fell by the wayside, he moved on to another, where he kept winning, kept building and eventually won pro-stock IHRA championship.

“I really got to know a lot of people then. We build hundreds of winning championship-type cars,” he said.

That’s not a brag, he insists, just a fact.

“It’s not that the cars were that great, I just had a lot of good people who had my cars, which made them look that much better,” he said.

Car-building business

In the mid-90s Mauney, while working with a team owner’s son in a nitrous-powered racing series, won a world championship in pro-modified class cars.

“In 1995 that car, counting the championship IHRA races, I won 38 races in that car. That’s pretty hard when you consider there’s only 52 weeks in the year,” he said. “A lot of people say (the car I raced in) was probably the winningest car in pro modified racing.”

That reputation was upheld even after he sold the car, as the new owner went on to have a similarly successful year behind the wheel.

A few years later, Mauney would win another world title in a different kind of car, making him the first person to win a world championship in two different categories.

After the turn of the century, Mauney began scaling down his time behind the wheel somewhat, focusing on his car building business, which was going through something of a boom.

That business still runs today in Spartanburg, drawing customers from all over the world.

“We’ve built 12 or 13 cars for people in Sweden. I’ve got cars in now Puerto Rico, Dubai, Barang and Qatar,” he said.

In 2008, Mauney went to work in Barang, where drove a car and worked as a co-crew for a team there.

Under that banner, he won a championship in the Philippines and notched a second place finish at a championship series in Qatar.

Childhood dream

For all of his experiences behind the wheel, some of Mauney’s most fond memories of racing come from the early days of his career.

As a child, Mauney’s family visited a drag racing event where he saw Ronnie Sox compete. By the end of the event, Sox was his favorite driver in the sport.

“He was this young guy, blonde headed and a cool-looking dude. That guy stuck with me. He was my childhood hero,” said Mauney.

Shortly after he established himself as a racer, Mauney ran into Sox at an IHRA event. Unable to race because of a busted up car, Sox asked Mauney if he could borrow his team's car for the next few races, even going so far as to offer Mauney a job as crew chief so long as he needed the car.

Mauney accepted and wound up traveling the IHRA circuit working alongside his childhood friend, eventually becoming good friends with Sox.

“Not many people get to look at somebody as a childhood hero and then get to hang out with them and do work for them or build them a car. That right there I’ll never forget,” he said.

In 2012, Mauney was recognized for his results on the track when he was inducted into the North Carolina Motorsports Hall of Fame.

That induction wasn’t the end for Mauney, however. Still a fan of the sport, he has spent the last eight or nine years as part of a racing team based out of Charlotte.

Dustin George can be reached at 704-669-3337 or Dustin.George@ShelbyStar.com. Find him on Twitter @DustinatTheStar.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.